$300,000 'Boger' fluid prize not on the nose

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But it has revolutionised the aluminium industry and last night
won Melbourne University chemical engineer David Boger the Prime
Minister's $300,000 science prize.

A boger fluid is a "visco-elastic" liquid  one that is
elastic, meaning it can be stretched into strings, but also flows
predictably like a liquid.

In the late-1970s, Professor Boger (pictured) put large molecule
polymers into corn syrup to produce a thick, stringy fluid whose
flowing behaviour could be predicted.

Aluminium giant Alcoa was excited by the development because it
wanted to find a better way to dispose of by-products which are
usually poured into huge tailings dams with millions of litres of
water.

Based on Professor Boger's fluid mechanics work, Alcoa devised a
way to concentrate its waste into a thick matter that could still
flow down pipes and chutes without clogging them as tomato sauce
clogs the neck of the bottle.